Surprise guest: Obama joins gaggle

Just days after White House aides boasted that they didn't have to rely on traditional media outlets to get the president's message across, President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at the briefing room podium.

Until Tuesday, Obama hadn't held a traditional news conference since last summer. And in comments to The New York Times's Peter Baker and The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, administration officials suggested they’re skeptical of how effective a full-dress appearance before the White House press corps is, especially in an era when the media is so fragmented.

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Yet, as they have before, this White House illustrated just how reactive they can be to that same traditional media, even as they say it doesn’t have the same clout as in an earlier era.

So there was Obama again facing a group of traditional media reporters in the briefing room, starting off with questions from Fox’s Major Garrett and ABC’s Jake Tapper.

"Let's get a print guy," Obama said, before calling on USA Today's David Jackson. He followed up with NBC's Chuck Todd and ABC's Ann Compton, before taking one last question on jobs.

The move was reminiscent of how the Obama White House handled questions over Tom Daschle's appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services after it was reported that the former senator hadn't paid all his taxes. Initially, the White House stood by Daschle. But on the same day that Baker wrote a front-page piece that raised questions about what Daschle's troubles meant for the Obama brand, and the paper editorialized about the appointment, Daschle withdrew.

In this case, Obama’s briefing room visit came after a "White House Memo" last week by Baker, now covering his administration, and a piece by Kurtz. Baker and Kurtz called attention to a White House press strategy that seems to be sidestepping the press corps in exchange for doing interviews with television anchors or taking questions over YouTube.

Because this was the first time Obama has taken questions from the full White House press corps in more than six months, the White House press team wanted to make sure reporters paid attention. At one point, NBC's Savannah Guthrie tweeted that not only did Garrett get the first question, but he was also taking a photo. "Multi-platform journo!" she wrote.